'And whereas for seven
hundred years the Irish People has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly
protested in arms

'And whereas English
rule in this country is, and always has been, based upon force and fraud and
maintained by military occupation against the declared will of the people:

'And whereas the Irish
Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916, by the Irish
Republican Army, acting on behalf of the Irish People:

'And whereas the Irish
People is resolved to secure and maintain its complete independence in order to
promote the common weal, to re-establish justice, to provide for future defence,
to ensure peace at home and good will with all nations, and to constitute a
national policy based upon the people's will with equal right and equal
opportunity for every citizen:

'And whereas at the
threshold of a new era in history the Irish electorate has in the General
Election of December, 1918, seized the first occasion to declare by an
overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic:

'Now, therefore, we,
the elected Representatives of the ancient Irish People in National Parliament
assembled, do, in the name of the Irish Nation, ratify the establishment of the
Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration
effective by every means at our command:

'We ordain that the
elected Representatives of the Irish People alone have power to make laws
binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only
Parliament to which that people will

give its allegiance:

'We solemnly declare
foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we
will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the English
Garrison:

'We claim for our
national independence the recognition and support of every free nation in the
world, and we proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to
international peace hereafter:

'In the name of the
Irish People we humbly commit our destiny to Almighty God Who gave our fathers
the courage and determination to persevere through long centuries of a ruthless
tyranny, and strong in the justice of the cause which they have handed down to
us, we ask His Divine blessing on this the last stage of the struggle we have
pledged ourselves to carry through to freedom.'

(Dail Eireann: Minutes
of the Proceedings of the First Parliament of the Republic of Ireland, 21st
January 1919.)